Its all fun and games

I have nothing serious for you this week. After a steady diet of sobering (and sometimes depressing) news, I'm as game as anyone for, well, some games, and for some fun.
This week, we've got a variety of things that oughtta make you smile or help you joyfully fritter away a few minutes. Tell your boss you're just managing your stress.

Star Wars Soundboard
starwars.com/games/playnow/soundboards/index.html
From the official Star Wars site, a too-much-fun bit of soundplay. Cue up a bunch of effects (from Jawas, Chewbacca and dueling X-wings and TIE fighters), select some choice bits of dialogue, mix them up, and play it all back. For Star Wars fans, it's a hoot and a half.

I Love Traffic
games.yahoo.com/free-games/i-love-traffic
Ever been told to go play in the traffic? Sure you have. And now you can do it safely from your desk or your coffee-shop chair. I Love Traffic is a game in which you get to play traffic cop, or more precisely, traffic light. With increasingly challenging levels, your job is to get the cars, trucks and whatnot moving, without causing a crash or a delay. Surprisingly hard to resist.

Simpsons Dictionary www.simpsoncrazy.com/dictionary
D'oh, diddly, meh, cromulent … like it or not (and I, for one, welcome our new language sources), the Simpsons has had quite the effect on the words we use. Indeed, all of the above words have entered common usage, even by people who don't regularly watch Homer and Marge and their four-fingered progeny. Here's a dictionary to help guide you, although I actually would change a few of the definitions here.
Any scientician would.

Konami Code Sites
konamicodesites.com/
Konami what now? The Konami Code, a manoeuvre involving directional arrows and the letters B and A, is an old-school cheat for gamers, which has found a bit of a new life on the web … with a smile. This page tracks websites that have built the Konami Code as an Easter Egg, or a way of delivering something special if you know to look. The page will look blank when you load it; to get inside, you'll have to tap in … you guessed it. To find the code, just Google it.

Super Word Playwww.nickelarcade.com/SuperWordPlay.html
Think of this game as a cross between Scrabble and Solitaire. You're up against the clock, as you're given a set of letters (you can choose either six or seven) and must compose as many words as you can think of. You rack up the big points for using up all the letters, but stalling won't help you out. It's a good game for keeping your mind sharp, but I found myself frustrated because the game was not as quick in placing the tiles as I was in typing them.

Sudokuwww.cbc.ca/diversions/sudoku/
Four or five years ago, I would have thought the Sudoku thing was a passing fancy. It's no fad at all. Here's a daily supply of an online version of the popular game, which for my money (it's free, by the way) is the best way to play: save your pencils, and use your keyboard to solve the numeric riddles. There are hundreds of archived games to play, should you wish.

Free Old-Time Radiowww.free-otr.com
Remember the Alka-Seltzer Hour? Um, me neither. The Golden Age of radio had pretty much died out by the time my TV-raised generation was coming on the scene. But in case you recall that and many other shows listed here, or were curious to hear how millions of North Americans were entertained for decades, here's a chance.
There's a fair bit to sample, and downloads of MP3s are free.

John Gushue is a news writer for CBCNews.ca in St. John's. E-mail: surf@thetelegram.com. Blog: johngushue.typepad.com.
Twitter: twitter.com/JohnGushue